276 SPIRITUALISM telligences. The same claims to open inter- course with the spiritual world, with many phenomenal evidences which he regarded as iMuMishintr their truth, were afterward noted by Dr. Justinus Kerner, and detailed at large in his biography (1829) of one of his patients, Frederiea Hauffe, more familiarly known as the seeress of Prevorst, who is said to have been in a magnetic state for most of the time during the last seven years of her life, descri- t g the persons and repeating the language of what she represented to be spirits, and be- ing often accompanied with mysterious rap- ping sounds. In 1830 Bertrand and other students of mesmerism came upon the borders of spiritualism. The correspondence (1836) between the French mesmerists Billot and De- leuze shows that they were aware of some of the marvels asserted by the later spiritual- ists. Billot writes that he and his co-sec- taries had both seen and felt the spirits. De- leuze declared that the possibility of com- municating with spirits had been proved to him, and he also cites the testimony of a dis- tinguished physician concerning clairvoyants who " cause material objects to present them- selves." Many instances of alleged intercourse with the invisible world subsequently occurred in France, Germany, and other parts of Eu- rope, and in the United States. In the spring of 1843 the societies of Shakers at New Leba- non and Watervliet, N. Y., and several other communities of that fraternity, almost simul- taneously became the subjects of strange psy- chological experiences, during which certain of the members would lose all personal con- sciousness, while influences purporting to be the spirits of persons of different nations, who had lived in the world in different ages, took possession of their bodies, and spoke through their vocal organs. None of the phenomena of clairvoyance were more remarkable than those in the case of Andrew Jackson Da- vis. (See DAVIS, ANDREW JACKSON.) Thrown into an abnormal state of mind and body by the process of magnetism, this young man, while professing to be in immediate converse with the spiritual world, dictated a large oc- tavo volume, which was published under the title of " The Principles of Nature, her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind." In a portion of this book that was dictated in 1845 (pp. 675-'6) the entranced author dis- tinctly predicted that the communication with the spiritual world would ere long assume " the form of a living demonstration." It is noteworthy that, although Davis was almost wholly uneducated, his first and subsequent works, conceived when he was in a clairvoy- ant state, or while more or less illuminated, as he claims, by the influence of invisible spirits, are written in correct and oftentimes elegant language. The "spirit-rapping" phenomenon In-.-in iii M.-.rch, 1848, in the family of John ). Fox, in Hydeville, Wayne co., N. Y. Be- iides Mr. and Mrs. For, only their two young- est children, Margaret, 12 years old, and Kate, 9 years old, were at home when the family was startled by mysterious rappings that were heard nightly upon the floor of one of the bed- rooms, and sometimes in other parts of the house. They endeavored to trace the sounds to their cause, but failed. It is also alleged that a patter of footsteps was sometimes heard, the bedclothes were pulled off, and Kate felt a cold hand passed over her face. On the nirht of March 31, when the raps occurred, Kate imita- ted them by snapping her fingers, and the raps responded by the same number of sounds. Kate then said : " Now do as I do ; count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6," at the same time striking her hands together. The same number of raps respond- ed, and at similar intervals. The mother of the girls then said: "Count 10;" and 10 distinct raps were heard : " Count 15," and that num- ber of sounds followed. She then said : " Tell us the age of Cathy [the youngest daughter] by rapping one for each year," and the num- ber of years was rapped correctly. In like manner, the ages of each of four other and then absent children were by request indicated by this invisible agent. Mrs. Fox asked if it was a human being that was making that noise, and if it was, to manifest it by making the same noise. There was no sound. She then said: "If you are a spirit, make two distinct sounds." Two raps were accordingly heard. Three weeks afterward, it is said, it was made known by the raps that the body of a murdered man lay buried in the cellar, and the exact spot was indicated where parts of a human skeleton were actually found. The name of the murdered man was given, and it was learned that five years before such a person had visited the house and had suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. After a while the raps occurred only in the presence of the two sisters, Margaret and Kate. The family hav- ing removed to Rochester, the raps accom- panied them, and new phenomena, including clairvoyance and the movement of ponderable bodies without appreciable agency, were de- veloped. In November, 1849, the Fox girls appeared in a public hall, and the phenomena were freely manifested and subjected to many tests ; and a committee appointed for their in- vestigation, after continuing their experiments there and elsewhere for several days, reported that they were unable to trace them to any mundane agency. In May, 1850, the Fox girls arrived in New York; the alleged spiritual manifestations became the subject of exten- sive newspaper and conversational discussion ; their facts were published far and wide; "me- diums," through whom they were said to oc- cur, sprang up in different parts of the country, and were multiplied by hundreds and almost by thousands. In that year D. D. Home (see HOME, DANIEL DUNGLAS), at the age of 17, be- came known as a medium, and in the five fol- lowing years he attained a wide-spread reputa- tion, especially for his materialization, levita-
